


The Fight

by FloralEyeBalls



Series: Vaguely Chinese Themed Mall AU [5]
Category: Bandom, Cobra Starship, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco
Genre: Angst, Balloons, Birthday Parties, College AU, Crying, Domestic, Fluff, M/M, Memes, Pete tries to be cute and it fails, but it's okay in the end, patrick is a meanie, sad boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-26
Updated: 2015-07-26
Packaged: 2018-04-11 10:00:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4430939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FloralEyeBalls/pseuds/FloralEyeBalls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Fight started over nothing really. It was an accident, an example of miscommunication, too much stress and too many high expectations. It started when Pete decided to hold a surprise party for Patrick's 21st birthday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fight

**Author's Note:**

> beta'd by thestarswillfade, the coolest piece of angst trash I know

Pete and Patrick had been officially living together for approximately five weeks when The Fight happened. 

The Fight started over nothing really. It was an accident, an example of miscommunication, too much stress and too many high expectations. It started when Pete decided to hold a surprise party for Patrick's 21st birthday. 

Pete put all his effort into the party for weeks. He had worked out a guest list of Patrick's friends from college as well as some of his own friends, so he could introduce Patrick and it would be less awkward for Pete. He organised catering from Patrick's favourite Chinese place in the city, and of course plenty of alcohol. He even made a pretty amazing mixtape that Patrick would like, to play at the party. But by far the hardest part of planning the party was keeping it from Patrick. 

"You mean there's glitter that you can eat?! I-actually he would hate that, can you just do blue frosting?" Pete asked the baker over the phone, while lying on the couch in their apartment, "awesome! thank you" Pete hung up just as Patrick walked in the door.

"Hey, who was that on the phone?"

"oh, no one! how was work?" Pete quickly, and obviously, changed the subject. 

"yeah...work was okay" Patrick said wearily. This isn't the first time this week he's noticed Pete leaving him out of the loop. And it's not that he was controlling, he understood that they needed to have their own lives, but that did nothing for the knot of worry starting to form in his chest.

"...are you okay?" Pete asked, sounding concerned and starting to get up, probably to check Patrick's temperature or something equally as dotting and motherly. 

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Just tired, I'm going to go lie down for a bit" 

"Okay. I'm gonna make mac and cheese for dinner, I'll come and get you when it's done" Pete smiled like everything was okay and Patrick smiled back briefly before hiding out in their bedroom. 

He was over exaggerating wasn't he? Pete was probably just talking to him mum or something. He's being dumb. Patrick tried to believe it but part of him was still worried. 

The rest of the evening featured nothing else that would make Patrick's anxious mind jump to conclusions again. That happened the following morning, when Patrick was awoken at eight am on his day off. 

"what's wrong?" Patrick mumbled sleepily 

"Oh you're awake, sorry. I...ah have to be somewhere. I just remembered" Pete stuttered as he buttoned his shirt and kissed Patrick's cheek, "I'll be back real soon" 

Patrick couldn't fall back asleep, no matter how much he wanted to. Where was Pete and what was he up to? 

After Pete had to go into the bakery to solve a minor disaster with the cake, he picked up coffee and muffins for Patrick, incase he was mad at Pete for running out on their sleep in and cuddle day. 

Pete expected to find Patrick still asleep but was surprised to see him dressed and sitting at the breakfast bar when he got back. 

"hey babe, you're up? I brought coffee and muffins" Pete smiled his most pitiful smile when he saw the less than impressed look on Patrick's face, "I'm sorry I had to run. forgive me?" 

"I don't know Pete, why'd you have to leave?" Patrick tried not to sound like a nagging housewife but he didn't think he was very successful 

"I um...had to help Andy with this thing. It was really important, I'm sorry" Pete held the tray of muffins in front of him as he slowly approached Patrick, "They're raspberry and white chocolate" 

"Yeah okay, I guess I can forgive you" Patrick ate his muffin and cuddled his boyfriend and desperately tried to let go of the worry he was holding.

A week later on the Friday, Patrick was holding a casual dinner at their apartment to celebrate his birthday the next day. They couldn't have it on the Saturday night because everyone had told Patrick that they had "very important plans, can't cancel sorry". The dinner was going really well, Joe, Andy, Brendon and Gabe, although having just met that evening, we're getting along like old friends. Patrick couldn't have been happier, surrounded by his favourite people and eating a giant piece of cheesecake. 

That was until he went to the bathroom and came back to find everyone crowding around Pete on the sofa, looking engrossed in something on his phone.

"Are you all watching porn on my boyfriends iPhone or something?" Patrick laughed 

"Patrick!" Pete yelled 

Everyone skittered away from Pete and did horrible impressions of people acting natural. 

"oh ha hey Patrick!" Joe attempted to seem normal with one arm on the back of the sofa, "how was the ah...bathroom?" 

"The bathroom was good...how was the circle jerk?" 

"There wasn't a circle jerk! Pete was just showing us some...memes. Yeah! Pete was showing us memes on his phone" Gabe added, to which everyone nodded and looked relieved.

"You know how much I love memes" Pete confessed.

"Well can I see the memes?" Patrick asked, not at all believing them.

"You don't really like memes Patrick, you wouldn't find it funny"

"But these memes looked really exciting, if your faces were anything to go by" 

"They weren't. They were terrible memes" added Joe, it seemed like everyone had something to say except for Andy. 

"Yeah, Pete! Your memes suck!" Brendon said.

"Why can't I just see the memes?!"

Everyone was quiet for a second. No one had a real answer, except the truth of course. What were they looking at? Were they making fun of Patrick? Laughing at bad photos Pete had taken of him asleep? Tweeting about how lame his party was? How lame he was? Joe and Brendon were supposed to be his friends. 

"Can we talk about this later, Pat?" Pete said, getting up from the sofa and coming to stand next to Patrick.

"No! Don't call me Pat and stop keeping whatever this is from me, okay Pete?" Patrick took a step back as Pete approached.

"Do we have to do this now?" Pete whispered, hinting at their guests who were staring at them wide eyed from the sofa.

"Yes we have to do this now! Is this inconvenient to you? Do you have a better time?" 

"Maybe after your birthday dinner and when all our friends have left?" Pete kept his tone passive, trying to stop whatever this was before it became a fight. 

"Okay fine! Until then I'll go, because you guys seem to be having enough fun behind my back anyway." 

"Patrick, don't-" Pete started but never got to finish because Patrick had stormed out and slammed the down loudly in his wake. 

Everyone was silent. Pete wasn't even breathing, "That could have gone better"

"Sorry Pete, I just wanted to see the balloons you picked" Brendon said sadly. 

"It's not your fault, this has probably been coming awhile anyway. He'll come around." 

Everyone just hoped he came around fast because the party was less than twenty four hours away. 

After everyone apologised six times and made excuses to leave, Pete was left alone in the apartment. He had no idea where Patrick could have gone, considering all his closest friends were here with Pete until ten minutes earlier. 

Pete knew he had to fix this somehow, Andy had even directly and sternly told him "don't fuck this up" before he left. But he didn't want to tell Patrick about the party and ruin all his hard work. Was he fucking this up?

Pete sat in the living room for another hour or so before deciding maybe it would be best if he just went to bed and left Patrick to find out what all the secret keeping was about tomorrow night. 

When Patrick came home to a sleeping boyfriend he felt childish and rejected. In his head Pete would have waited up and apologised as soon as he stepped foot on the apartment, but Pete didn't care. Maybe he was cheating on him? That actually made a concerning amount of sense. The secret phone calls, the last minute plans, maybe they were all looking a Pete's new lover on his phone earlier? Why would Joe and Brendon keep this from him? And even Andy. He thought Andy was his friend too. 

Maybe they were just happy for Pete. He found someone better. Older, smarter, prettier. Someone like Pete deserved. 

Patrick grabbed his toothbrush and the books he needed for class the next day before stuffing them in a backpack and leaving the apartment. 

Pete woke up alone and confused. It was Patrick's birthday. Where was he? He knew he had class at ten am but it was only just past eight. 

Pete got up and wondered the apartment. It looked like Patrick had never come home the night before. Maybe this argument was more serious than Pete realised and he'd crashed at Brendon's.

He felt uneasy as he called Patrick's phone. He felt downright sick after getting voicemail four times in a row. He decided to try a different angle and called Joe, if Patrick wasn't at Pete's he was bound to be a Joe's.

"Nope, haven't seen him since you pissed him off last night", was Joe's helpful response. 

"Yeah well if you see him tell him I'm really sorry and can he please call me"

"Yeah sure man, he has class soon though so he's probably there or whatever" 

"okay, thanks Joe" 

After hanging up on Joe, Pete gets the idea to go to Patrick's college and apologise in person. He could even make it romantic with like flowers and shit. He just hoped Patrick wasn't mad enough to turn him down in public because he didn't think his heart, or ego, could take it. 

After texting Brendon to find out where Patrick's first class was he made his way to the closest bakery to get Patrick a combined "happy birthday, and I'm sorry I'm such a terrible boyfriend" cupcake. He even got a candle for it and everything. 

Waiting outside Patrick's first class, holding an over-decorated cupcake was a lot more embarrassing than Pete first thought. Everyone who walked past attempted to read what the cupcake said and then promptly looked at Pete with either pity or confusion. Half an hour after the class was due to start Pete gave up and went home, still carefully holding the cupcake and even more worried about the location of his boyfriend. 

Meanwhile, Patrick was stuffing his face with like four of his mums' amazing chocolate pancakes at once. After leaving Pete's the pervious night he didn't really have anywhere to go but home. His parents didn't ask too many questions, they were just happy to have him back for his birthday. 

His phone seemed to be constantly vibrating with news from Pete but Patrick ignored it. He just wanted a nice birthday. 

Pete was getting not only worried but downright depressed. He pissed off his boyfriend enough for him to leave on his birthday and go missing, probably dead in a ditch somewhere, the night of the best and most difficult party Pete has ever even attempted to plan. This was all Pete's fault, he was dumb and insensitive and he knew it. But he still hoped Patrick came back and forgave him. Surly he would forgive him when he saw all the effort Pete put into the party, right? 

Pete couldn't have been more wrong. After Patrick managed to ruin his own birthday by thinking about Pete and his dumb smile, he let his mother convince him to go back and work things out. "You can't break up on your birthday! And you can't break up over something stupid, Patrick you didn't even let him explain himself"

"I let him explain himself! He just didn't want to" 

"Well if you really care about him you should give him another chance before deciding to move back in with your parents and become a spinster" 

"That's not what I'm doing mum! I'm just spending my birthday here, with the people who I know love me" Patrick was mostly trying to convince himself on that point. He wasn't giving up, just enjoying his birthday. 

"Well if you just went back maybe you could find someone else who loves you and is more fun than two elderly people in a suburban house"

So that's how Patrick ended up back at the apartment two hours before the party. 

Pete felt like he was going to cry when he first saw Patrick walk in, but he was already kind of crying so...

"PATRICK!" Pete jumped up and went to wrap his arms around Patrick.

"We need to talk" Patrick hated clichés, and didn't really want to break up with Pete, but they did need to talk. 

"Oh..." Pete was stunned for a second, for some reason he expected everything to be okay, "I'm sorry Patrick. We can fix this, right?" he pleaded. 

"Yeah Pete, I really want to fix this but I need you to tell me the truth. What's with all the sneaking around and what were you all looking at the other night?" 

Pete couldn't hold out any longer. This stupid party wasn't worth ruining their relationship over. "I've been planning a surprise party for you, happy birthday by the way. And last night I was showing Brendon pictures of the really cool balloons I got....it's dumb I know"

Patrick couldn't believe it. "Pete...tell me the truth please" 

Pete laughed a little, "I'm not joking! Brendon was really serious about me getting the right balloons."

"Pete...."

"I'm serious!" 

"You mean, all this shit was for a party? You made me think I was being cheated on!"

"What the fuck Patrick!? I wouldn't cheat on you" 

"No, but apparently you would risk our entire relationship for a stupid surprise party" Patrick spat, he knew this argument was dumb but he couldn't stop himself. He had to release some of the pent up tension. 

"Well believe me, I wouldn't have bothered if I knew this is what I'd get for my troubles. Do you know how much effort I've put into that stupid surprise party?" Pete was more hurt by Patrick's lack of enthusiasm for the party than he was angry, but if Patrick wanted to fight Pete would fight back just as hard. 

"If you put half as much effort into our relationship we wouldn't be having this fight!" 

"I put effort into this relationship! Fuck you Patrick! You never fucking appreciate anything I do for you." 

"That's because you can never do anything right! Every time you try to be romantic, from our first date up until now, you've somehow managed to fuck it up." 

"Sorry I'm such a fuck up!" Pete yelled in an attempt to cover up the fact that he was about ten seconds away from crying. "oh and happy birthday!" He called before he slammed the door to his own apartment. He had to get away from this right now. He couldn't stand to be yelled at while he was crying and it was pretty clear Patrick hated him. 

Pete already knew he was a fuck up, but it hurt to be told so by someone he had tried so hard not to fuck up. Patrick really knew how to bring him down, play off his weaknesses and make him feel useless.

Patrick stared angrily at the door for about five minutes before he couldn't hold it up any longer. He came here to fix things, not ruin them even more. He fucked up, he could admit that. The things he said to Pete were pretty unforgivable, he knew Pete always tried his best. Patrick didn't even know why he said it, he was just hurt and looking for a fight. Pete made him believe he was being cheated on and that fucked him up a little. 

Pete was a little more than fucked up. 

"Maybe you're just over reacting, Pete. I'm sure Patrick wasn't breaking up with you." Andy comforted after Pete loudly knocked on his door then started rambling about how life has meaning because Patrick and him broke up. 

"Yes he was! He told me I wasn't trying and that I'm a fuck up. And he called me ugly!" Pete cried, swaying nauseatingly in Andy's doorway. 

"He did not call you ugly"

"He may as well have!"

Andy led Pete inside with the hopes of calming him enough to find out what actually happened between him and Patrick. 

"Come on Pete, start at the beginning and tell me what happened tonight." 

After listening to Pete's drunk and emotional rambling Andy figured he was probably better off just calling Patrick and asking for the full story. 

"Pete?!" Was apparently Patrick's new take on the traditional "hello".

"Andy, speaking on Pete's behalf. What the hell happened tonight?" 

"Andy, oh my god. Is Pete okay? We had a fight. He's okay though right? Tell him to come home." Patrick rushed.

"He's okay, he's laying down on my couch. He told me you said some pretty rough things, but he's not exactly...reliable right now. What happened?"

"Ahh...what did he say I said?"

"He told me you called him a fuck up and said he wasn't even trying. oh and that you called him ugly."

"I didn't call him ugly!" Patrick protested weakly. 

"But you said the other stuff?"

Patrick remained silent. 

"What did he do to deserve that?" Andy said evenly, always willing to hear both sides of the story. 

"That's the thing, he didn't even do anything! He told me about the party and was so scared that he was cheating on me that when I heard he wasn't I just...didn't know how to react." 

"You thought he was cheating on you? Are we talking about the same Pete here? He's creepily obsessed with you." 

"I know! I just...I fucked up. Can I come over?" 

"You know like fifty people are going to show up on your doorstep in like an hour right?" 

"All the more reason for me to leave" 

"Fine. But you have to go back to your own place for make up sex."

"Deal" Patrick agreed, feeling a little more positive. 

Andy went out to his living room to find Pete crying into his hands. Apparently crying sobers him up pretty quickly. 

"Hey, Pete come on. It'll be okay." Andy comforted, sitting next to Pete and wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

"No it won't! Patrick's right, I'm a fuck up and I fucked this up just like I fucked up every other relationship I've ever had." 

"Patrick wasn't right at all. He was scared and lashing out, you know he doesn't mean it."

"Maybe he didn't mean it, but I drove him to say it anyway. I fucked him up and I made him hate me."

"He doesn't hate you Pete! You guys just had a fight, he's coming over soon and you can work this out for good." And you can bet your ass that Andy was going to make Patrick apologise for saying that shit to Pete, and after that he was going to make Pete apologise for being neglectful during his party planning phase. 

"He wants to see me?" Pete looked up, hopeful like he thought it really was over between them. 

"Yes, you idiot. He feels terrible and wants to come apologise and make up."

"Really?"

"Oh my god, you two are insufferable!" Andy groaned. 

When Patrick arrived Pete was sitting up straight and half smiling, despite the redness around his eyes. 

"Pete...I'm sorry" Patrick said as soon as he stepped into Pete's view. 

Pete just got up and took two giant steps into Patrick's arms. "I'm sorry I'm such a fuck up, but I'm trying Patrick. I swear I'm trying!" 

"Shh I know. You're not a fuck up, I'm sorry I said that. I was just so scared and...and I love you, Pete." 

Pete froze against Patrick's chest, "Really?"

"Yes really! What the f-"

"I love you too, Patrick" 

"That's cute and I'm really happy for you and all, but what about the party?" Andy interrupted, "Its due to start in like fifteen minutes" 

So they took Pete's car after a short lecture from Andy...

"I can't believe you drove here while drinking! You could have killed someone!"

"I barely made a dent in the bottle! I just needed to feel something other than Patrick for five minutes!" 

That made Patrick feel sick but he guessed he deserved it. 

They arrived at their apartment only a quarter of an hour late for Patrick's own party. Brendon had used to spare key to let himself in and set everything up as according to plan. 

"Surprise!" Everyone called when Patrick unlocked the door. The first thing he noticed was the balloons, which were everywhere. Probably up to one hundred rainbow helium balloons. Patrick wasn't much into balloons up he could admit it was pretty impressive. Like every little kids birthday wish come true. 

"Brendon forced the balloons on me" Pete whispered into Patrick's ear as he watched him take in the room. Obnoxiously decorated and filled with everyone he loved. Pete even managed to invite his parents. 

"This is...thank you" Patrick said once to the room, then again just to Pete. "Thank you, for everything. I love you" 

"I love you and you're very welcome. Now go enjoy this party that caused so much stress and drama, please" 

Patrick did enjoy the party, with Pete right by his side the entire time.

**Author's Note:**

> look mum, I wrote something that's not 14 words long!!
> 
> this is also the end of this series so thanks for reading and stuff, it's been fun.


End file.
